Joe Biden, in a 38-minute speech that touched on everything from the United States’ role in the world to health care to free community college, said Democrats need to take control of the House in order for Republicans to stand up to President Donald Trump. | Scott Olson/Getty Images

Biden, stumping for Sherrill, says midterms 'a battle for the soul of America'

MONTCLAIR — The fight for New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District seat is also becoming a battle between the current and former vice presidents.

Former Vice President Joe Biden addressed several hundred supporters of Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill on Wednesday, telling them that voters need to give Democrats control of Congress in what he called a “a battle for the soul of America.”

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“If we don’t build up a bulwark against the erosion of our American values by winning back the Congress, God forbid what happens in 2020,” Biden, a potential candidate for president in two years, said at Montclair State University.

“We desperately need, in both parties, men and women of character,” Biden said, mentioning Sherrill by name and telling the crowd, “Mikie gets it.”

Vice President Mike Pence was in the district less than a month ago to help out the Republican nominee, Assemblyman Jay Webber (R-Morris). But unlike Biden’s rally, Pence’s event was a closed-door fundraiser, his only public appearance an unannounced diner visit. (Biden also had a closed-door event scheduled for donors, Sherrill campaign staff and volunteers after Wednesday’s rally.)

The fact that the district is attracting such major figures, and in such different ways, shows how crucial it — and New Jersey — has become in this year’s midterm elections.

Biden, in a 38-minute speech that touched on everything from the United States’ role in the world to health care to free community college, said Democrats need to take control of the House in order for Republicans to stand up to President Donald Trump.

“What has become of us? My Republican colleagues know better, but they’re silent. They’re afraid,” Biden, who referred to Webber as a “Trump acolyte,” told the crowd. “This is not who we are as a country. Where are they? Where are they?”

The 11th District has been represented since 1995 by Republican Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, who now chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee. Frelinghuysen, the scion of a political dynasty that dates back centuries, unexpectedly abandoned his reelection campaign in January when it became clear he would face the first competitive general election of his career.

Trump won the well-heeled suburban district by about 1 percentage point in 2016. But anti-Trump anger has fueled Democratic activism here, enabling Sherrill to significantly out-fundraise Webber. As of June 30, she had nearly $3 million in the bank, compared with $171,000 for Webber.

Sherrill, a 46-year-old former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot who went on to work as a federal prosecutor, has based much of her campaign on opposition to the new federal tax law that hits New Jersey — and particularly the 11th District — hard by capping state and local income tax deductions.

She also touched on health care, saying she wants to ensure “families don’t go bankrupt if a loved one has a pre-existing condition” and “that we protect women’s health care and we don’t roll back the protections on marriage equality.”

Webber, a Harvard-educated lawyer who’s served in the Assembly for 10 years, has a deeply conservative voting record and chaired the New Jersey Republican Party from June 2009 to January 2011.

“Mikie Sherrill has made a seamless transition into the role of professional politician, beholden to Democrat Party bosses like Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden,” Webber spokeswoman Ronica Cleary said in a statement. “Make no mistake, you will continue to see Democrat party elites campaigning for Mikie up until Election Day because they are fighting to send someone to Congress who will support their liberal platform that includes trillions of dollars in new taxes, and that is weak on Syria, Iran, and Israel.”

New Jersey, once a swing state, has for the last 26 years been solidly blue in statewide federal elections. But its House delegation is nearly evenly split, with seven Democrats and five Republicans.

That could change this year, with two of the state’s longtime GOP House incumbents retiring, and four of its five Republican-held House seats ranked by most ratings publications as anywhere from “toss-up” to heavily favoring Democrats. That makes New Jersey, often ignored by the national parties, key to Democrats’ hopes of retaking the House in November.

Democrats need to gain 23 seats in order to regain control of the House of Representatives.

Most publications that rate the competitiveness of House races give Sherrill a slight edge over Webber.

“The nation’s eyes are on us because we are on the cusp of doing something special,” Gov. Phil Murphy said shortly before Biden and Sherrill took the stage. “Right now, New Jersey is the most important state in the United States. If we are going to take the nation back from Donald Trump and his enablers, the wave will start here in Montclair.”